Jeremiah 17: 5 -8
Matthew 6: 25 -33
“A Few Thoughts on Trees and Sermons”
Jeanne and I have the only covered front porch on our street. I love to sit on that porch and rock in my plantation rocker and just watch the world go by. I often watch nothing as much as nothing go by, but every once in a while I see something extraordinary while just sitting there. Once I watched a doe and her fawn just wander down the street. Two years ago I saw a mother duck waddle down the street followed by her brood of chicks. They had been hatched in a protected area on a neighbor’s front lawn. Last summer I saw a hawk swoop into the front yard and pluck a morning dove off the ground, which was no mean feat because we have some very large trees in our front yard, including several pine trees, a maple, an oak and a Japanese Maple; and these trees are full grown and bring lots of shade to our front yard. In the fall that Japanese Maple has the most brilliant red leaves on it. We also have a large yew on the side of the porch with branches that have woven themselves around each other to create a perfectly wonderful maze of interlocking arms. Whenever I sit on my porch and look at the flora that graces my front yard I am reminded of Joyce Kilmer’s poem “Trees” ( poem at end of sermon.)
Now, all of this got me to thinking the other day about trees, and especially what we can learn from trees, and lo and behold a sermon was born! So, where to begin? Well how about a little information and background on trees.
For instance, did you know that the pine cone of the Jack Pine tree that grows in the rugged western mountain areas of this country, can withstand temperatures of up to 2000 F? A regular forest fire will burn the cone and as a consequence the seeds are protected, and the tree will survive. If you have been to Hawaii
One other note about trees: in the Garden of Gethsemane just outside the Old City of Jerusalem, there are Olive trees that have been dated to be over 2,000 years old. This means that there are living things that would have witnessed the historical Jesus. Actual, living witnesses to his arrest. If those Olive trees could talk what would they tell us about what happened that night in the garden?
All of this is prelude to my telling you that I am going green this morning. I’m going to talk about trees. So you might call this Sermon Light. Actually what I want to talk about is what trees can teach us. You know trees come in an amazing
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variety; have a remarkable beauty, and are so absolutely necessary to our planet and our way of life. Aside from cleaning our air, they provide food, shelter and even medicine. But what struck me most profoundly the other day as I sat on my porch and watched the trees in my front yard was not the historical, genealogical,
Pharmacological or even philosophical significance of trees, but rather that trees actually have some distinct advantages over us humans, advantages at which we need to look more closely.
As an example, trees never have identity crises. I have never been called by a tree in some emergency situation to come give spiritual aid. I have never heard a tree ask: Who am I? What am I doing here? Where am I going? Trees seem to be content with what they are, where they are. And probably more importantly they seem content in giving what they can.
In his wonderful book “The Giving Tree” Shel Silverstein tells the story of a tree that, over time, gives a boy as he grows from a young lad to an old man, everything the tree has to give in order to help the man be happy. Ultimately the tree gives all, including her trunk so that all that is left is a stump. In the end the man is very old and all he wants to do it sit down, and all the tree has left to give is a stump upon which the old man can sit. At the end of the story the old man says ….
“’I don’t need very much now,’ said the boy, ‘just a quiet place to sit and rest. I am very tired.’ ‘Well,’ said the tree, straightening herself up as much as she could, ‘well, an old stump is good for sitting and resting. Come, boy, sit down. Sit down and rest.’ And the boy did. And the tree was happy. The end.”
There is an old saying that the best gift we can give our children is roots and wings, meaning we give them identity and freedom. There is nothing sadder than a person who does not know who they are. In the First Letter of John the author tells us that we are God’s children. He wrote: “Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is.”
Trees never worry about who they are. They never long to be something else. Trees never ask “what is my purpose in life”. They never attend seminars on the Power of Positive Leafing; they don’t carry an I-phone, or a droid, they are content with whom, with what they are. They give us all of what they are and do not complain. They are what God intended them to be and are content in their role. If only we could learn that from a tree. If only we could learn that to give of ourselves freely and completely would we truly be living the life God intended us to live. In other words we would me more like Christ.
Another observation I made that day on my front porch was that tress do not worry about the future. They don’t spend their lives in fear of what tomorrow may bring. They never seem to worry about aging, or their saplings, or the stock market. They accept life as it comes. How unlike us! We so often complicate our lives with the additional burdens of
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worry, fear and anxiety. Maybe that is one of the reasons trees live as long as they
do, and we seem to exit all too soon.
When I went into the Navy one of the things I had to do, in fact all potential pilots had to do was spend a day talking with a psychiatrist. The Navy wanted to be sure we were well balanced individuals who wouldn’t crack up under the strain. When I finished talking to the doctor he said to me: “Mr. Norrie you will make a fine Naval Aviator.” I asked him how he could tell that just by the tests we
took and the conversation we had. His answer was: “because you have no apparent fear of death!” That was it! I would make a good pilot because I had no apparent fear of death. Now being 20 yrs. old at the time that really didn’t make much of an impression on me, and it wasn’t until years later that the whole idea of not fearing death truly hit me. I was counseling with a good therapist and we were talking about anxiety, worry, fear, and as I ran through a litany of those things about which I was anxious. The therapist kept asking me what was the worst possible thing that could happen in each worrisome situation. Ultimately, I said that the worst thing that could happen to me would be to die. And then the therapist asked, “and then what?” My response was, “well, then I see God!” That’s when it hit me. I have never feared death because I have always believed that death is not the end. That when it comes I will see God face to face and it will be perfect. Actually, there is apart of me that is more than curious about death, almost looking forward to that
unknown part of God’s reality. It could be a result of more than 30 years of standing at the grace side intoning the words that speak of eternal life. Maybe I have come to believe it’s true because I have talked myself into it. However, whatever the case may be, and more importantly for me, not fearing death has helped me to not fear living.
We spend so much time worrying about all the things going on around us, or going wrong around us. We have fears about everything; we are all bound up by the duct tape of anxiety. If only we could live our lives knowing that nothing life throws at us is ever going to rob us of seeing God face to face, and of knowing God’s pure unlimited grace and pardon filled love, then every moment of life could be lived for what it has to offer rather than for the anxiety it produces. Carpe Diem would take on a whole new meaning. Not, as some people seem to think, that it means seizing the day and throttling it until it yields, but seize the day and enjoy everything it has to offer.
And isn’t that what Jesus told us to do? In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus tells us “… do not worry about your life.” And a little later on in that sermon Jesus tells us to consider the lilies of the field. He could just as well have said, “consider the pine tree in your front yard.” God, who takes care of the lily of the field or the pine tree will also take care of you. Trees don’t make the mistake of being worried or anxious. I don’t know if they are conscious of God, but God is certainly conscious
of them. Trees live the life God intended them to live, free of worry, fear and anxiety.
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A final observation I made that day sitting on my front porch is that trees often lean on each other for support. Earlier I mentioned the giant Sequoias. They
are among the tallest trees in the world and yet did you know that they have shallowest of root systems. The roots of the Sequoia do not grow deep into the ground. They survive because they grow in groves and their roots are intertwined. They literally hug each other; they hold on to each other; they hold each up and keep each other from falling. I wish we could become that wise and trusting as we
learn to live with each other.
Two men were cast over board during a violent storm. They were able to swim to a near-by island which they found to be disserted. The two survivors, not knowing what else to do, agree that they have no other resource except to pray to God. But, they fell into an argument over whose prayer would be more efficacious. To end this debate they agreed to divide the territory between them and stay on opposite sides of the island and to pray. The first thing they prayed for was food. The next morning the first man saw a fruit bearing tree on his side of the island
and he was able to eat. The second man’s parcel of land remained barren. After some days the first man was lonely and he decided to pray for some female companionship. The next day another ship was wrecked and the only survivor was a young woman who swam to his side of the island, but on the other side of the island the second man still had nothing and nobody. Soon, the first man prayed for a house, clothes, more food, and the next day, like magic, all of these were given to him, while the second man still had nothing. Finally, the first man prayed for a ship to come so that he and his female companion could leave the island. In the morning the first man found a ship docked at his side of the island. The first man boarded the ship with his female companion, but decided to leave the second man alone on the island. He did so because he considered the other man unworthy to receive God’s blessings since none of his prayers apparently had been answered. As the ship was about to leave the first man heard the voice of God booming from heaven: “Why are you leaving your companion on the island?” “My blessings are mine alone since I was the one who prayed for them” the first man replied, “his prayers were all unanswered and so he does not deserve anything.” “You are mistaken” God rebuked him. “That other man had only one prayer, which I answered.” “Tell me” the first man asked, “for what did he pray that I should owe him anything?” “He prayed” said God, “that all your prayers should be answered!” Have you ever prayed that someone else’s prayers should come to pass rather than your own? Try it some- time, I think you will find it to be a profoundly liberating experience.
Trees do not worry; they do not have identity crisis’; they give completely of themselves; they look at God all day and lift their leafy arms to pray; they support each other and they go about their business as if it were the only thing God asked them to do, which of course it is. What can we learn from trees? That worry, fear, anxiety will not help us one bit, in fact it will probably shorten our lives. That the best way to get through life is by holding on to each other very tightly; by giving
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freely to each other the best we have to give; by praying for each other that God will grant the best God has to give to the other; and finally that our true job in this life is to be exactly what God intends us to be. And when we discover exactly what that is
we lift our arms to heaven in prayer and in thanks and receive from God all the blessings God wants to give us.
Thus says the Lord: Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals and make mere flesh their strength, whose hearts turn away from the Lord. They shall be like a tree in the desert, and shall not see when relief comes. They shall live in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited land. But blessed are those who trust in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out roots by the stream. It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves
shall stay green; in the year of drought it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit.”
Sermons are preached by fools like me, but only God can make a tree. And we should be so wise and free, to live our lives just like a tree. Amen.
- “Trees” by Joyce Kilmer
I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is pressed
Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of Robbins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me
But only God can make a tree.
Sermon preached 07/31/11 at Abington Presbyterian Church by Rev. Jack Norrie.
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